574. Gospel of Luke - Chapter 9 (#2) - Jesus Feeds the Thousands - June 13, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:41] A wise son, heads his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to review. A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, that the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.

[00:00:58] He who guards his mouth preserves his life, that he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

[00:01:16] A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is lutesum and comes to shame. The wickedness over throws the sinner. There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing. has nothing, and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches. The ransom of a man's life

[00:01:45] is his riches, but the poor does not hear review. The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. By pride comes nothing but strife, that with the well-advised

[00:02:02] is wisdom, wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

[00:02:21] He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death.

[00:02:38] Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard. Every proven man acts with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly. A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful ambassador brings health. Poverty and shame will come to him who distains correction,

[00:03:05] but he who regards a rebuk will be honored. A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, but it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil. He who walks with wise men will be wise,

[00:03:23] but the companion of fools will be destroyed. Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous, good shall be repaid. A good man leaves and inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Much food is in the follow ground of the

[00:03:48] poor, and for lack of justice there is waste. He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him proctly. The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul, but the stomach

[00:04:07] of the wicked shall be in want. Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 18, and proper 13 verse 18 says this, poverty and shame will come to him who distains correction.

[00:04:27] The heed who regards a rebuk will be honored. Friends will come back and take a closer look at that verse prior to closing today, but what I'd like to do is pick up in the gospel of Luke chapter nine

[00:04:42] where we left off yesterday. And in yesterday's story, Jesus sends out his 12 disciples just as Jesus is sending us out today. We have the same orders marching orders that Jesus gave his disciples years ago. Today we are going to pick up beginning in verse 7 of chapter nine. Now,

[00:05:10] Herod, the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, meaning Jesus, and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared,

[00:05:29] and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. Herod said, John, I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? So he sought to see him.

[00:05:47] So friends, my first point on today's lesson is Herod seeks to see Jesus. Now what I'd like to do is go over the commentary found in my Bible, and I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible, but for verses 7 through 9 this is the commentary. At Herod's palace,

[00:06:14] opinions varied as to whether Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets. Though this passage suggests that Herod was uncertain about Jesus' identity, if we go to the 14th chapter of Matthew, or the 6th chapter of Mark,

[00:06:38] those both indicate that Herod viewed Jesus as John the Baptist raised from the dead. Now I want you to think about the implications of this. He actually believed that John, the Baptist had been reincarnated into this man who now is known as Jesus.

[00:07:05] He actually believed he was raised from the dead and he was seeing John the Baptist. Let's go to verse 10. And the apostles, when they had returned, told him all that they had done. Now remember,

[00:07:21] in yesterday's lesson, Jesus has sent them out to go and preach the gospel and to heal the sick. Then he took them and went aside privately into a deserted place, belonging to the city called

[00:07:40] Beth Seida. And ordinarily, when Jesus did this, he wanted some time alone to pray. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed him and he received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who had need of healing. Now friends, the second point,

[00:08:08] I would like to bring up today is that Jesus healed those who had need of healing. Now I want you to think about it. So let's listen to the commentary for verse 11. Jesus had the same two-pronged ministry that the 12 disciples had, preaching and healing.

[00:08:34] The topic of Jesus' preaching was always the kingdom of God. That is the only topic he ever talked about. Now he would give various descriptions of it, but he was always talking about the

[00:08:51] kingdom of God. I'd like to refer back to the previous verse where it says that he wanted time alone. Now Jesus seems to never have had time alone, but you have to remember who Jesus was.

[00:09:08] He still was the Son of God. And even though he emptied himself and became a man on earth, he still was the Son of God. And he needed time alone in prayer.

[00:09:24] But what I want you to do is look at the contrast between Jesus here in this verse because when they found him and began to follow him, Jesus opened his arms to them. He was always ready to talk

[00:09:42] to the people. Let's go to verse 12. When the day began to wear away, the 12 came and said to him, send the multitude away that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge

[00:10:03] and get provisions for we are in a deserted place here. But he said to them, you give them something to eat. And they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish.

[00:10:19] Unless we go and buy food for all these people, for there were about 5,000 men. Now when it says the feeds of 5,000, he's only talking about the 5,000 men. Now friends, this could very easily

[00:10:36] have been closed to 15,000 people. And the disciples felt uncomfortable. The end of the day is coming to a close. I can imagine the Son is somewhat beginning to make its descent in the sky.

[00:10:55] I don't think it's near supper time yet, but you can tell the day is beginning to come to a close and the disciples are feeling uncomfortable. They don't know what they're going to do about

[00:11:11] all these people because it's starting to come to the time of the day when they need to think about eating a meal. Then he said to his disciples, make them sit down in groups of 50 and they did so

[00:11:28] and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven. He blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all

[00:11:47] ate and were filled. And 12 baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Let's go to our third and final point for today. Jesus feeds the thousands, and I'm not going to give you a number. The number has never been really told or is known

[00:12:13] because it says they were about 5,000 men. Most of the men were probably married and most of the families probably had two, three, four children. We don't know. You have to sit there and think

[00:12:31] all times were a lot different than they are now. So it could very easily have been at least 15,000 people. What I'd like to do is read the commentary per verses 13 through 17. This is the only

[00:12:50] miracle of Jesus' ministry that appears in all four gospels. Friends, I believe that that is significant. Only this one particular miracle is in all four gospels. The feeding of the 5,000 demonstrated Jesus' ability to provide. And friends, he is still providing for us today. But the point

[00:13:21] is you need to ask him. You need to ask him what you have need of and in Mark's Gospel chapter 11, it says that when you pray, believe that you are going to receive what you pray for. That is found

[00:13:41] in verses 23 and 24. And friends, that is the purpose of praying. If you are going to take the time to pray, we are to believe that what we pray for will come to pass and will be ours.

[00:13:59] Blessed and broke. Some see an illusion here to the Lord's table. Though this is not made clear in Luke's presentation, the description is similar to the table fellowship of the last supper found in chapter 22. And Jesus' meal with some of the disciples after his resurrection.

[00:14:27] Now friends, before we close today I'd like to go back to our proper of the day and we were in proper of 13 and verse 18 says this. Poverty and shame will come to him who distains

[00:14:46] correction. Now friends, I believe this verse talks about and relates to our story today. This is when the disciples came to Jesus and said, Jesus send them away. We don't have anything to feed them.

[00:15:03] And Jesus reviewed them and said, you feed them. So let's look at this verse again, poverty and shame will come to him who distains correction. Jesus is rebuking his disciples here.

[00:15:22] You give them something to eat. Do not send them away, but he regards a review will be honored. And so the disciples listened to the review of Jesus and when Jesus gave further instructions

[00:15:44] of what they were to do, they did it. And friends, I believe this could very easily fit into our society today. If you hear the words of Jesus, we are to do them and God will sometimes

[00:16:01] review us in some way or fashion. Now sometimes we don't know exactly when we are being rebuked. It might be through the Word of God and you go, oh my gosh, I did that. I shouldn't have

[00:16:18] done that. Or our spouse may remind us of something or our boss or maybe our children or maybe our parents or our friends. Friends, the point is we need to be open to review. If and when we do

[00:16:37] something we maybe should not have done. So my call to action today, I'd like for you to put yourself in this story today and pretend that you are one of Jesus' disciples. Because in theory,

[00:16:57] I believe that we are his disciples today and he has told them to feed the people. Friends, we are to feed people that we come in the contact with. If we don't purchase a meal for them,

[00:17:16] it is good if we share the gospel with them. It may be as simple as giving them a hand, helping them with groceries, putting in a car or you can simply open a door for a person.

[00:17:32] Just be kind, be gracious, be loving towards all individuals. Whether we give someone a meal or not, it's not all that important. What is important is that we love God but we also show love

[00:17:49] to each and every one of the people we come in contact with. Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. If there is

[00:18:04] anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you came to earth

[00:18:17] and died on a cross and were buried. On the third day, I believe you rose from the dead and now sit at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus, I believe by dying on that cross that all

[00:18:32] of my sins have been forgiven. I want to thank you for forgiving me of my sins and yet Jesus, I find life somewhat tedious and hard at times. I'd like for you to come into my heart.

[00:18:47] I want you to lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life. I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if any of you repeated that prayer, I invite you to go to my webpage, wisdom today,

[00:19:02] bk.com. If you would, there is a contact tab, click on that tab, enter in your name and your information that you just said that prayer or if you have any questions please reach out to me

[00:19:19] on my this webpage. Let me know that you have a question. I'll be happy to get back with you. Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make us say shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:19:34] The Lord lifted up his countments upon you and give you peace. Friends, please join me again to Maro as we close out the week with wisdom today.